On July 20, 2024, during a student movement demanding nine reforms, police opened fire on demonstrators in Dhaka’s Jatrabari area, killing 19-year-old Imam Hasan Bhuiyan Taim. Taim, the son of a police sub-inspector, had joined the protest with friends when officers allegedly forced them out of a shop and shot him as he tried to flee. Witnesses said he identified himself as a police officer’s son before being shot multiple times at close range. Videos of the incident later spread widely on social media.

The protests erupted after the government imposed a curfew to suppress the student movement, which had called for a “complete shutdown.” Eyewitnesses described police using tear gas, sound grenades, and live ammunition. Taim’s father, a long-serving officer, and his family later identified his body at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. His brother demanded exemplary punishment for those responsible.

The viral footage and the father’s emotional phone call questioning the number of bullets used to kill his son intensified public anger and further energized the protest movement.